“(TEPCO’s explanation) was absolutely false and seriously obstructed the investigation,” Mitsuhiko Tanaka, a former member of the now-disbanded Diet commission, said in a statement submitted to the chiefs of the two Diet chambers on Feb. 7.

Tanaka asked the Diet to inspect the No. 1 reactor building to see if isolation condensers--key safety components at nuclear plants--were damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011.

If the emergency cooling system was damaged by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake, stricter quake-resistance standards would be required for nuclear power plants, further delaying the restarts of idled reactors around the country.

The isolation condensers stopped working soon after the earthquake struck, which is believed to have contributed to the early meltdown of the No. 1 reactor.

TEPCO has denied they were damaged by the quake.

Tanaka, a former reactor design engineer, was responsible for on-site inspections for the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission.

He and other commission members planned to visit the plant on March 5-6 last year after receiving reports that subcontracted workers had seen water on the fourth floor of the No. 1 reactor building following the earthquake. Two tanks and piping were holding water for the isolation condensers.

But Tanaka gave up on that plan after TEPCO said the reactor building was pitch-black and dangerous to enter.

In reality, a cover over the building transmitted 10-16 percent of sunlight. It was also equipped with powerful mercury lamps.Read the whole Story: [link to ajw.asahi.com]

Comment in Response to the Asahi Shimbun (Newspaper) (Pages 1-2 of the Morning Edition) Article "TEPCO Provided False Information to the Investigative Panel Appointed by the Parliament" (February 7, 2013) When the investigative panel appointed by the parliament requested us to allow for the investigation of the inside of the Unit 1 Reactor Building at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, we explained to them that the inside of the building was very dangerous with extremely high doses of radiation, scattered debris and the possibility of injury and falling due to holes in the floor*.

We admit that we mistakenly thought and stated that the picture of the reactor building cover was taken BEFORE it was installed when we were asked by the panel about the brightness of the inside of the building. However, the truth is that it was taken AFTER the installation. We deeply apologize for this mistake and strongly assert that it was not in anyway our intention to provide inaccurate information.

Although the inside of the Unit 1 Reactor Building remains dangerous, we will respond sincerely to future investigation requests in consideration of the site conditions.

* During the explanation, a video of the investigation of the same unit performed by TEPCO was shown to the investigative panel appointed by the parliament. A TEPCO worker spent 55 minutes at the site to film the video (about 30 minutes inside of the Reactor Building), and the maximum radiation exposure dose was 9.44mSv.Source: [link to www.tepco.co.jp]

Not TEPCO! They would never,ever, under any circumstances lie about how bad things got and still are. They would never paint the grass green or Photoshop pictures and video. Conspire to hide all data they can even though it harms the people, or think of CEO's and stock prices first. Not TEPCO!

The panel members were seeking to determine whether important equipment of the No. 1 reactor had suffered damage as a result of the earthquake on March 11, 2011, before ensuing tsunami ravaged the plant and triggered a nuclear crisis.

"The investigation was blocked because of false explanations," science journalist Mitsuhiko Tanaka said in a statement, requesting that the state investigate the unit's emergency cooling system called an isolation condenser.

Tanaka said he was told by TEPCO on Feb. 28 last year that the inside of the building housing the crippled No. 1 reactor was dark due to a lack of lighting and because an outer cover had been installed to reduce the release of radioactive substances into the air.

"It is so dark that one could get panicky. (TEPCO) workers cannot accompany (the panel members) due to the risk of radiation exposure," a TEPCO official said at the time, according to Tanaka.

The panel members decided that the situation was dangerous and gave up on the investigation. [link to mainichi.jp]

TEPCO president blames one official for misleading Fukushima investigative panelNaomi Hirose, president of Tokyo Electric Power Co., denied an organization-wide effort to interfere with a Diet investigation into the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, saying one official was responsible for spreading misleading information.

Hirose was summoned as an unsworn witness before the Lower House Budget Committee on Feb. 12 to respond to questions from Kiyomi Tsujimoto, a member of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan.

"We would like to cooperate as much as possible," Hirose said when asked about future on-site inspections of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Hirose’s statements came after The Asahi Shimbun reported on Feb. 7 that a TEPCO official provided false information to a member of the Diet panel investigating the March 2011 nuclear accident.

Toshimitsu Tamai, then chief of TEPCO's corporate planning department, explained in February 2012 that the No. 1 reactor building was "pitch black" due to covering and was too dangerous for an on-site inspection, given the high radiation levels in parts of the building.

In reality, the cover over the No. 1 reactor building still allowed 10-16 percent of sunlight to enter. It was also equipped with powerful mercury lamps. [link to ajw.asahi.com]

Fukushima nuclear disaster investigation must continueNow TEPCO is saying the falsehood "was not intentional." That's hard to believe. Even if this was a crime of omission, if TEPCO simply failed to adequately check conditions at the plant for the Diet investigators, that in itself would be a major problem.

In a disaster as major as the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns, finding the cause must be given highest priority. The Diet investigation was working on behalf of the Japanese people, and thus TEPCO was duty-bound to cooperate with it to the greatest possible extent, for the sake of digging up as much truth about the disaster as there is to find.

If TEPCO gets an inspection request like the one from the Diet committee, it must assess conditions on-site and make sure the investigators can do their job without risking their health. If TEPCO had performed these common-sense tasks, there is no way the utility could have claimed the No. 1 reactor building was "pitch black" inside, because it wasn't. At the very least, TEPCO displayed a shocking lack of respect and sincerity to the Japanese people.

What the government inspectors wanted to see was the emergency isolation condenser, or IC, on the fourth floor of the No. 1 reactor building. They wanted to check if the unit had been damaged during the March 11, 2011 earthquake, before tsunami inundated the plant. The IC is supposed to pump water into the reactor core and keep it cool if the plant loses power, but it did not function properly on that day.

TEPCO insists that the IC unit was not damaged by the magnitude-9 Great East Japan Earthquake. According to one Diet investigative committee member, however, one witness stated that a water leak had been detected on the fourth floor before the tsunami hit, suggesting at least the possibility that the piping in the IC unit had been damaged in the quake.

But this issue is not just about unraveling the Fukushima disaster. Whether the quake damaged vital equipment at the plant also affects future reactor risk evaluations and safety standards. New safety standards are at this very time under evaluation at the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA). If reactor systems were in fact seriously damaged by the quake, that would be ample basis for demanding very strict regulations on vibration resistance.

Furthermore, after being stymied by TEPCO on its first attempt, the Diet must renew inspections, and not just of the No. 1 reactor's IC unit. The investigation into the cause of the meltdowns is not over. The Diet nuclear disaster investigative committee and its government cousin have been dissolved, their final reports filed, but the investigation must continue. [link to mainichi.jp]

Thwarted once, inspectors again seek truth about cause of Fukushima disasterA Diet investigation committee requested access. TEPCO replied that an inspection would be dangerous because the building was "pitch black" inside, an assertion later exposed as false.

An inspection could settle a fundamental difference of opinion between the Diet committee and a separate investigating panel set up by the government over the root cause of the disaster. The Diet committee believes it was the temblor, but the government panel says it was the tsunami.

If the condensers are found to show damage consistent with shaking in an earthquake there would be case for higher standards in nuclear plant design—with important implications for existing reactors built to lesser tolerances.

But the Nuclear Regulation Authority chairman warned against premature conclusions.

VOX POPULI: TEPCO’s ‘pitch-dark’ explanationIn the scary French fairytale "Bluebeard," there is a small, secret room which no one is allowed to enter except for the owner of the house. During his absence, however, his new wife enters the forbidden room and discovers the bodies of the man's former wives.---The panel wanted to look into isolation condensers on the fourth floor of the reactor building to find out why the condensers, whose cooling function is supposed to work even during a power failure, failed to function properly when they were needed.

If the condensers were damaged by the earthquake, that fact will also be considered a cause of the nuclear accident, contradicting TEPCO's explanation that the crisis was caused only by the unexpectedly large tsunami.

That, in turn, would call into question the earthquake-resistance abilities of all nuclear power plants and further delay the restart of reactors across the nation.

EPCO forms 3rd-party verification panel over false info to block on-site reactor probeTokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) set up a third-party verification panel on Feb. 18 to examine why and how the utility firm gave false information to block an attempt by a Diet-appointed investigative panel to enter the No. 1 reactor building at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.

The third-party panel plans to hold its first meeting on Feb. 21. The panel is to investigate why and how TEPCO, the operator of the troubled Fukushima nuclear power station, gave false information last year to block the Diet-appointed panel from conducting on-site inspections of the reactor building as well as whether senior TEPCO officials were involved in the wrongdoing. [link to mainichi.jp]

ANALYSIS: TEPCO inquiry admits 'misinformation,' but critics demand moreIn a report submitted to TEPCO on March 13, the investigative panel declared that Tamai had misled the Diet committee, but that he had not done so on purpose. In other words, the report said, he did not misinform investigators such as Tanaka with the aim of dissuading them from carrying out an on-site inspection.

The panel argued that Tamai would have had no motive to tell a lie that would have been rapidly exposed had the inspectors gone ahead with their visit. It would be hard to assume that he had lied on purpose, it said, because by doing so, he would have dug a hole from which it would have been hard to climb out.

But that logic is flawed because the lie would not have been exposed if TEPCO had successfully blocked the visit.

One major problem with the TEPCO-commissioned panel is that all 26 people it interviewed are TEPCO insiders.

The panel initially asked members of the now-disbanded Diet investigation commission if they would cooperate. The former Diet investigators said they would cooperate if the Diet gave them permission to do so. But the panel then never requested such permission and, therefore, conducted no interviews with the former Diet investigators.

The panel also said its investigations included a review of media reports. However, here, there are indications to the contrary.

There was no mention in the panel's report of Tamai's remarks that could have indicated his intention, such as his pressure to "make a decision today." It contained no investigation of the reported voice recording.